Grunty Industries: The Untold Story
by ws49
Summary: A tale of how Grunty Industries came to be what it was in the game. Told in a more serious fashion than the game. Rated T just to be safe. Read & Review! Don't forget to follow/favorite!
1. The End of a Era

**Grunty Industries: The Untold Story. By ws49 **

A Banjo-Tooie fan-fiction.

"_Everything is not as it appears." You may think you know everything about a person. Sometimes you may be right. Other times you will be wrong. First impressions are not how one gets to see a person fully. If one were to get a chance to follow a persons story, we might see a whole new side of them we never even considered. This, is that chance._

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* * *

_

It was a cool, spring day in the area around Frederick Metal-Works. The factory stood near the edge of a large forest. The outside of the factory hasn't changed much since it was built. The main entrance was a small building with a sign on it which stated "Frederick Metal-Works" in crisp, bold letters. Heading past that, one would find the main factory. A rather tall rectangular building, with two large, cylindrical chimneys reaching up to the sky. The building itself was mostly brick, with a tunnel leading from the side of the factory deep into the forest surrounding it.

The manager of the factory, a lime-green Jinjo named Burdon, was sitting at his office on the 1st floor looking over, or to put it better, sulking over some documents. His office was plain and simple; a refection on his personality. His desk was currently covered with all manners of papers and spreadsheets. On the side of his desk a goose-neck lamp hung gloomily, casting the Jinjo in a solemn light. A single window in the office gave a large view of the 1st floor.

A knock at the door brought the manager out of his realm of numbers and pie charts.

"Come in," he said simply. In the door came Aldar, one of the head mechanics in the factory. He was a black reptile, the only one in employment in the factory. He was currently wearing his dark grey workers uniform. His orange utility belt, which was currently fulled to the brink with many strange tools and gizmo's, was held around his waist via a large red buckle and suspenders. A compact pressure gauge was strapped on his right suspender. He was slim and tall, with a look in his eyes that betrayed his youth. He had originally has a job in Glitter Gulch Mine where he would do simple things, like smith pickaxes for the miners or fix a broken generator. He also would repair things in his spare time, some would say that was his hobby.

"What do you want Aldar?", Burdon said irresolutely. Aldar made his way up to his boss's desk.

"You alright, boss?", Aldar said, as if he already knew the answer. "Of course I'm Fine - never been better." Burdon said, sarcasm evident.

Aldar just stared at him.

Burdon eventually caved; "I- I'm just stressed, that's all."

"Stressed about what?" Aldar said.

"...Nothing specific."

Aldar didn't buy it. "You suck at lying, you know that? Come on, out with it." he said.

Burdon gave a small chuckle; Aldar all ways could tell what he was thinking.

Burdon's face now became unreadable.

"Take a look at this," Burdon said, giving Aldar one of the papers that he was glowering over a few minutes prior to the conversation.

Aldar fumbled around his belt for a few seconds before saying "Sorry boss, I left my reading glasses in my locker; wouldn't be able to see a word on that page."

"It is the financial statement for this factory, and it ain't good." Burdon said.

Aldar blinked. "So? We had problems like this in the past, and Frederick always gets us out of the red."

Burdon sighed, "In the past, yes, but now...", he paused, as if struggling to form the right words, "... he isn't as, well, shall we say... patient, as he used to be." he concluded.

Aldar, now very concerned, inquired while taking a seat in the chair "What... what does that mean?".

Burdon waited a moment before answering,

"It means... that he's thinking about selling the factory."

"WHAT?" Aldar practically shouted.

"Shh, calm down," Burdon said, "I am not ready to tell the entire factory yet."

"But you will have to tell them eventually," Aldar stated, taking a seat in one of the chairs in the office.

"I know, but we're not even sure that's what is going to happen." Burdon said.

Aldar thought for a moment, tapping a claw on the chair, "Who is thinking about buying the factory?"

"A company named 'Winkybunion United'."

"Isn't that a underwear factory?"

"From what I know, yes," Burdon replied.

"Why do they want our factory? Last I checked, our factory is too big for just making underwear..." Aldar noted.

"No Idea," Burdon admitted.

"So when did this all happen?" Aldar asked.

"Oh, about a week ago, I just received this info yesterday."

"And If Frederick wants to sell it, will it be Winkybunion United that buys it?" Aldar asked?

"It seems like it; no one else is interested in the factory."

"Well, if I must say, sir", Aldar said, "This is certainly unexpected... but I guess these things happen. But I hope you will still be my boss if the company is bought out."

"Unfortunately, my boy, I am getting too old for this job," the Jinjo said with a sigh, "either way, I am retiring next year."

"Oh.." Aldar said sadly.

"'Oh'? You are sad to see me leave?" Burdon said with a smile, "Did you think I would stay here forever?"

"Well, no... but, you retiring and the company changing hands... the factory will not be the same."

"Aye, it won't..."

They both were silent for a few moments.

"Hey, boss?" Aldar finally said.

"Hmm?"

"The reason I left my old job at Glitter Gulch was not because of the danger, well, that may of been a small factor in it," Aldar began to say, "But the real reason was because of the fact that I could not stand the people there. Sure I loved what I did there, but in the end, the pointless arguments got boring after a while. So that's why I left that job. Now I am here and I have what I didn't back at the mine: People I can tolerate. Like you, for example. No offence." He paused for a moment. " But now," Aldar continued, "with you leaving, it seems like the beginning of a new chapter. This factory will have a new manager. I only hope that that one will be as good as you, boss."

Burdon, who had been listening intently to Aldar's monologue, smiled at the last comment. "Well, I am deeply honored, Aldar, thank you."

"No, Thank you boss, I know I have gotten into some trouble in my time here so, thanks for letting me off easy."

"Aldar," Burdon smirked, "You know as well as I do that I wasn't letting you off so much as letting the _other_ guy off easy."

"True, true," The reptile concurred.

"Well, Aldar, I have a lot of work to do, so if you..." He indicated the door.

Aldar smiled, "Of course sir. I really should get back to work too; the boys down in Waste Disposal are having trouble installing a part for the new trash-compactor."

"Really?" Burdon looked curious, "I heard Jakob was heading the installation. Haven't ever seen him ask for help before. Ever."

"That's because he didn't ask me," Aldar explained, "But seeing as he almost fried the $20,000 compactor's main computer buy plugging it in backwards, I decided to pay him a little visit."

"Ok, I don't need to hear any more," Burdon quickly replied; the thought of anything expensive being destroyed was a manager's worst nightmare.

"Good day, boss."

"You too, Aldar."

Burdon just stared after Aldar as he exited the room. _The boy certainly has skills_, he thought.

But, Aldar also had something of a lone-dog attitude him. He would often times elect to do a task all by himself. Not to say that was a bad thing all the time, he did indeed complete projects alone.

But the problem came with the fact that Aldar just didn't like some people. Aldar was kind to most people, but when it came to certain kinds of people, he would just go off on them. Not like full anger, but more of a sarcastic, counterproductive manner. Granted, Aldar knew to avoid those situations if he could, but sometimes, these things were unavoidable.

And with Aldar's, well, unique personality, he may get into trouble with the new management. He was in the middle of some conflicts a couple of times before, but Burdon had always let him off easy. That may not be the case with Aldar's new boss, Burdon thought.

But, in Burdon's opinion, that was far outweighed by the simple fact that he was excellent at building things, heck, Burdon even watched Aldar weld two pieces of steal together in under 20 seconds! Not to mention the countless other things he helped fix in the factory. He was one of the 'good' people here, and he should know to keep out of trouble with new management!

And with that, he got up from his chair, grabbed his hardhat, and headed out into the factory.

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_(A/N)_: I had originally intended for this to be a one-shot but I realized that that would leave many people confused. So, now this is gonna be the 1st chapter. I hope this wasn't too long for you to read.

My creative powers run on music, free-time and reviews. You can contribute to the power by pressing the button marked "Review".

Also I did my best to catch any spelling/grammar errors, but some may have slipped through. Let me know if you see any of them. :)

Review! Tell me what you think!


	2. Under New Management

**Grunty Industries: The Untold Story. by**

A Banjo-Tooie fan-fiction.

_(A/N) Point of view has switched to Aldar from here on out. Also please bare with me, as this is another exposition chapter. Also, I have taken a lot of creative licence with the factory layout, so I will try to make some thing match up with the game, but sometimes I will change things._

Enjoy!

* * *

'Such a gloomy day,' thought Aldar as he walked up to the main entrance to the factory. It was steadily raining as he arrived at the entrance building. A wave of dryness met him as he entered the double doors. The building contained a information desk, its occupant currently absent. A security station sat at the rear end of the small building. A security officer was at it, currently looking very tired. Waving causally to the groggy officer, Aldar one again took a step into the rainy pathway. As he walked down a slight incline and got closer to the building, he let out a large groan: the Moat was back.

Before the factory was first built, it was all dense forest. To be able to build it, a whole section of land was dug up, the foundations and basement floors of the factory built, and the whole area covered with a new layer of dirt. Unfortunately, due to a miscalculation in the construction phase of the project, the entire factory property was built on a slightly lower elevation plane than the surrounding land. This caused almost all of the property to flood when ever it rains a lot. This has been named 'The Moat' by the workers. While the path to the large entrance of the factory remained above the water level, it still was very muddy to walk through. There was also large puddles that one had to avoid.

After nearly falling into a large, muddy puddle, Aldar finally managed to make his way to the factory entrance. After a moment spent trying to get most of the mud off his shoes, he continued into the 1st floor. The first floor was the "hub" of the factory. At the dead center of the first floor sat the managers office. It was, to put it simply, a room on top of a tower. This was where the manager could oversee the entire factory. Behind the office, separated by a wall was the train station. This was where the factory imported and exported most of its goods. If looking from the managers office at the left side of the train station, a set of four elevators would be the main attraction of that area. These elevators allow employees access to all floors of the factory, except the basement areas. These were for the workers mainly, as the big freight elevator, stood on the wall opposite the train station. This big elevator is mainly used for supplies and other things.

Aldar made his way to the workers quarters. It wasn't that extravagant; a main common area was where the workers usually congregated before the 1st shift. Some were just getting coffee, or checking the sports section of a newspaper to see the local team standings. One of main sports in this area was kickball. Aldar himself was not particularly a sports person, so he didn't really pay much attention to anything sports related. After finding his locker, 157-A, which was at the far end of the large hallway of lockers, he opened it up to grab his work clothes. He also needed his glasses.

"Hey Weldar!" said someone behind him.

He turned around to find Neville, one of his few but good friends at the factory. He, like Aldar, works in the mechanic department, abet less skilled than Aldar. Aldar had known him even before he was working here, when the reptile was only an intern before getting a job at Glitter Gulch. He was a fox with brown fur, and he was wearing his mechanic's uniform, a yellow jumpsuit, with a image of a wrench on the back. It was nice and clean, but would definitely not look that way at the end of the day.

"So I guess that name is gonna stick, isn't it?", Aldar remarked on his nickname.

"Hey, your excellent at welding, and it kind-of fits your name, so why not?" Neville said while opening his own locker.

"Whatever," Aldar stated; he never knew where that nickname started. He only knew that people started calling him 'Weldar' a few months ago. He didn't really care for that nickname, but he didn't try to stop them.

"So, the new manager is coming today.", Nevilleremarked, while grabbing his hardhat.

Aldar nodded. The factory changed hands about three weeks ago, with Burdon retiring three day later. Burdon announced the selling of the factory a few days after Aldar learned about it. At first many employees panicked, but when the learned that they will all still keep their jobs, people were generally accepting of the new change. But, even through Winky United now owns the factory, they haven't appointed a manger until now. The new manager is supposed to be given a tour of the building today. He is giving a speech at the end of the day, also.

"Yep. So what do you think he is gonna say?" Aldar asked, tying up his boots.

Neville shrugged, "Probably just fluff talk. Like how he is gonna improve the factory and what not."

"Yea, most likely," Aldar said, closing his locker.

"Well, I got to get going," Neville observed, looking at the clock, "Oh, and Derick, the security chief, wants to see you near the train station when you have a break, he needs your help it seems."

"Oh.. well, ok," Aldar said, "See you later then."

"Later, Weldar."

* * *

Aldar headed down to the train station during a time when he was free. He entered the active packaging area, where both raw and finished metal products are shipped out of the factory, he called out, "Hello?... Derick?". 'Seems like he is not here', Aldar thought, ' maybe I am too early...'

He attention was drawn to a large abject at the center of the room. Aldar guessed that it had been installed only recently, since he last visited this area only a week ago. It was a short metal container of some sorts, 'It looks like a cut-down tree trunk,' he thought. Its was only thigh height, but it was 'fat'. The top looked like it could open up. To reveal what, Aldar could not tell from this far away, so he decided to get a closer look. 'Was this the thing Derick want me to-', Aldar thought, but was cut off as-

****BEEP!** **BEEP!** **BEEP!** **BEEP!****

An ear-splitting Klaxon went off directly behind his head. "WHAT THE?" He shouted over the noise of the alarm. He turned around and looked above him. He came face to face with a camera and klaxon, which was currently blaring very loudly. The camera seemed to be pointed directly at him, and had a flashing red dot in the upper right hand corner of it. He looked up in confusion, completely unaware of the danger that was right behind him.

****ZAP!****

Aldar felt his entire body convulse as a powerful electric shock was applied to his upper back. He saw stars in his eyes as he felt control return to his body, and promptly fell to the floor. Luckily he managed to roll over when he fell, giving him the chance to look at his assailant. He was looking at a cylindrical robot, floating in the air. Occasionally it would open up to reveal its inner workings, but then close back up again. Aldar concluded that it was this thing that had shocked him. To his horror, it began to move toward him again. "This is gonna hurt," said Aldar, as he braced himself for the shock.

"Oh man... sorry Aldar!" he heard a voice say. Suddenly the alarms stopped, the quietness stung Aldar's ears a little. The "drone" stopped moving toward him. He looked toward the entrance to the train station and found himself looking at Derick, holding a small remote in his hand. Derick ran across the room to the fallen mechanic and held out a hand, "Need a lift?" he offered.

"Thanks," Aldar responded, grabbing the rabbit's hand, "What was all that?"

"New Security system," Derick said proudly, "Of course it's not really ready yet."

"I kind of got that, considering it just tried to assassinate me," Aldar said sarcastically.

"No no," Derick objected, "It only delivers a small shock. just enough to teach them a lesson, so to speak."

Aldar almost laughed, "You did see how I was on the floor when you came up?"

Yes, its not calibrated yet," explained the rabbit, "I was just working on it when I had to take a restroom break, and I forgot to switch the system off. Sorry 'bout that."

Aldar just stared, "Why did you not get shocked with the system on?

Oh, that's because it detects who is in the area, hear, look," Derick said pointing to the camera, "this takes a snapshot of anyone who walks in to this area, and compares them to a central database." he continued, "If it does not detect a know person, it activates the drones," he indicated the floating robot, "Then they should give three warnings, then they should administer a small shock, but obviously, that still needs some calibration." he concluded.

Aldar indicated the container in the center of the room, "This is where they are stored?"

"Yes, it is designed to hold at most two of the drones," Derick said.

"Is all this really necessary?" Aldar asked.

Oh yes," Derick replied, "We have had more than one case of unauthorized visitors snooping about here, and at least 3 attempted break-ins. With so little security staff around here, these things will make our job a lot easier."

Oh, ..ok..." Aldar replied, still a little bit apprehensive.

"Now, the thing is, I have been trying to get the door on the docking bay to close when all the drones are back in the hatch, but I haven't been able to," Derick said, "So you think you can give me a hand?

"Only if you can guarantee the next time I see that thing I won't be tased," Aldar demanded.

Derick replied, "Of course Aldar, you can be the first person to be put on file in the database. But first..." He indicated the docking bay.

"Alright," Aldar said, "Lets take a look."

Derick gleefully said, "Thanks Aldar, let's get started."

* * *

After a long day, Aldar headed back into the Workers Quarters. He spent a fair amount of time helping Derick with his security drones. He changed out of his work clothes which were in need of a wash, so he put them in the dirty basket. As he headed for the 1st floor to hear the new manger's speech, he spotted Neville**. **

"Hi, Neville, how was your day?", Asked Aldar asked, making small talk.

"Meh, the same as always." Neville replied.

Together, Neville and Aldar headed out to the 1st floor.

As they neared the managers office, they could see a lot of people have already gathered around the office "tower". At the top of the "tower" Aldar saw two people, a dark red Jinjo and a short, small avian woman. The Jinjo was dressed up in a dark grey business, one was so spotless it looked like it had been bought the night before. He was brushing the dust off his suit, while the avian was going over something on a clipboard.

The Jinjo stepped up to a podium that had been placed there. The gaggle of workers fell silent.

"Hello, most of you have never seen me before, so let me introduce myself. I am Rothm. Now, as you probably guessed, I am this factory's new manager. Our company now completely owns this factory," he said, letting his words sink in before continuing, "Now, I know that that sounds very ominous, and I recognise that. So don't worry, I won't implement any new major policy changes. As Winky United has never run a company like this, we will take a less active role than our other factory. My goal is to make this transition as painless as possible. But I can only do this you each and every one of you helping. I have big plans to help improve this factory, and with your cooperation, we can make those plans a reality." He paused for a moment. "Now I am not one for big speeches, so this is most likely the end of my little speech. Thank you."

As he left the podium, everybody started talking at once. Aldar found this to be quite irritating, so he decide to head off to a quiet area. He pushed past some of his co-workers and headed down to the train station, thankfully noticing a lack of alarms and security drones on his way through the active packing section.

Aldar sat down at a bench. Time like these Aldar liked to have some time alone. Luckily there were no trains in the station, so it was pretty much deserted down here.

He had about two minutes of silence before it was broken.

"Hey." It was Neville.

"Hi Neville, is it still noisy on the 1st floor?" Aldar asked, his claws intently occupied with a bump on the handle of the bench.

"Yea, is that why you here?" Neville inquired.

"Yes, yes it is."

"So what kind of vibe did you get from that speech?" Neville questioned.

Aldar replied, "It seems like he is a nice guy."

"Really?"

"Yes," Aldar replied, "Why, what did you think?"

"He is just a smooth talker," Neville stated, looking of into the distance, "Ever come into contact with one of those, Weldar? They seem to be on you side, but..." Neville hesitated, "Well, you never can tell with people like that."

"Well, I have personally never have had any contact with anyone like that," Aldar responded, " but I don't doubt the possibility of it. However, you can't just assume Rothm is like that. Like they say, never judge a book by it's cover."

"Your probably right. I can't just mark people off as 'bad'.. but..."

"But what?" Aldar asked curiously.

Neville sighed, "N-nevermind. I best be going."

Aldar nodded. "Well, Its getting late, I'd better get going too."

"OK. See ya, Weldar," Nevile said as he walked back to the 1st floor.

Aldar sat there for a moment more, then got up from his seat, and headed for the exit.

* * *

(A/N) Whoo-ho, that was a long chapter! So, is it getting a little bit more interesting? Well, either way, the plot will begin to kick in the 3rd chapter, marking the beginning of Act Two.

REVIEW / FAVORITE!


	3. Something Wicked this Way Comes

**Grunty****Industries****: ****The ****Untold ****Story****. **

A Banjo-Tooie fan-fiction.

Here's the next chapter. Had a busy schedule, so this is a bit delayed.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 3.**

Down in the repair depot, a orchestra of sorts could be heard. Most of the mechanics say if one spent enough time down there you could start to hear music. From pangs of hammer-on-steel, to the buzzing of a welding torch, the sounds were almost deafening. Unfortunately, hardly anyone went down here except those who work there.

Aldar lifted his welding helmet. He was currently repairing a broken support beam for a forklift, and with all the heat, he needed a break. As he went to grab a drink, he almost triped over one of the many broken objects littering the ground.

Basically, anything that gets broken will, one way or another, end up at the repair depot for repair. The depot is located in the basement of the factory. Aldar found that this is not really the best location, spacewise. With the Waste disposal plant taking up most of the space on the basement floor, there really wasn't much space for the maintenance and repair depot.

"Hey Weldar!" Aldar looked up from the part he was working on. One of the rookie mechanics was calling to him, "The manager wants to see you."

"Does he?" Aldar stated.

"Yes, He is down here actually, in your office."

"Oh! Well, Ok."

Aldar placed his tools down and headed for his 'office'. Well, it wasn't anything close to an office if you thought about it. It was a storage room beforehand, but Aldar had cleared up some stuff, and now it serves as Aldar's personal office.

He opened the door to find Rothm, stanging looking at a painting on the wall.

"Oh there you are," He said with a laugh, "I was going to look for you, but I asked one of the assistants here to find you instead."

"Oh, well, hear I am. Did you want to talk with me?"

"Ah, Yes," Rothm acknowledged, while taking a seat in Aldar's chair.

"I have been informed by- well, a certain party -that you often complain about the size of this department."

"It was Burdon, wasn't it?" Aldar had constantly bugged Burdon about the inadequate size of the maintenance section, however, in the end, Burdon couldn't do anything about it.

"Yes, It was. And he suggested that if I could do something, that it would make the maintenance department a lot neater, and might possible motivate the crew."

"Oh."

"So... I have brought it up at one of my meetings, and together we decided to renovate the basement floor."

"Oh." Aldar mind seemed to slow down, all its focus on what Rothm was saying.

"Now, the construction will begin at the start of spring. The plan involves adding new pipes and electrical wiring. We also plan to add in new space, so a lot of digging equipment will be down here. We will also need to knock down a few walls, so there might be some dust down here when that happens. Oh and, naturally, we will have to close down a section of the basement, and we will need the whole crew's cooperation on this."

"Well," Aldar spoke for the first time in minutes, "that shouldn't be a problem. The crew will eat their own tools if they could have just three feet of extra space."

"Alright, so your Ok with this?" Rothm asked, "I know I should have informed you a long time ago."

"No-No-No," Aldar replied, "It's fine. In-fact, it is very fine."

"Ok, I will have my assistant bring you a copy of the plan, once I find her. She seemed to have disappeared, but I will find her, eventually. I suggest you make the announcement ASAP."

"I will, and thanks you," Aldar said Rothm headed for the door.

"No, my friend, thank _you_." Rothm said.

As the door closed, Aldar sat in his chair, trying to comprehend what had just transpired.

* * *

At the end of the day, Aldar walked down from his locker after getting his stuff. The thought of what Rothm had said both excited and confused him. The addition of a new section of the basement might give some more space for the maintenance department, but Aldar was, to put it flatly, shocked about this decision. Why would Winky United expand the basement areas? 'It would not be cost-effective to do it.' Aldar thought. 'But I am not in charge here so I don't know all the details. And the maintenance department _was_ a crucial part of this factory."

As he was thinking, he heard a large crash come from the room beside him. It was a storage room, one that Aldar noticed that seemed to be empty when he came through here ten minutes ago.

"Careful you must be, Blobbelda, or our presence you will reveal," a rather nasally voice called out.

Aldar stopped walking at this point, his curiosity overpowering him, and slowly made his way back to the door. While he couldn't really see the occupants of the room, he could hear them, although it was a little muffled.

"Oh I wouldn't worry about that," a petite sounding voice replied, "So is that all you requesting of me?"

Yes, conveyed our requests have been," the nasally voice replied. "Now a hasty exit we will make."

Aldar stepped back into the shadows, hiding behind a large crate.

The door opened and two people stepped out.

One was a white avian, wearing a red business suit. Aldar recognised her as Rothm's assistant, Samantha. Aldar now noticed more of her features then the first time he saw her a month ago. Now he could see how her feathers were combed virtually strait, with hardly a quill out of place.

He beak was a soft golden color, with a streak of dark gold starting at her nostrils and going up to the base of her mouth. Her suit was a deep red, with black stripes on her pants. Standing next to her, looking over a file of some kind, was a very tall women. He skin had a slight green hue to it, and she was wearing a black dress, which was very simple, Aldar noticed.

"Thank you for taking the time to visit," the avian concluded, "I understand your concern, and I will take the necessary measures."

"Good, that is," said a third voice, one that sounded to Aldar to be more 'large', "In light of recent events... more importance we must put on this."

The tall woman looked around for a moment, "Oh- and obviously you should keep this on the down low."

"Of course."

"Well, off we must be. Come on, Blobbelda."

Out of the door came a person so large that Aldar seriously thought that she couldn't have fit thought the door. Light green skinned like her sister, but in her right hand she was carrying some light grayish thing. It looked like a cat, or a small bag, from the distance Aldar couldn't tell.

'The two combined made the other's appearances more pronounced', Aldar thought as he looked on.

Well, Goodbye," the thinner sister said.

As they walked off, Aldar came out of his 'hiding spot'.

'Well," he thought 'what... unique acquaintances Samantha has... and what weird speech quirks. Still it is a little odd that they met so secretly like this.. But," Aldar remarked, "It's not really my concern." He noticed that he still hadn't moved from that corridor. 'Am I thinking about this too much?' he thought. 'yep, that's what it is.' Needing to get some stuff back at his office, he took off.

* * *

Aldar was surprised to find Nevile in his office when he got back. He was standing in the middle of the room, a somewhat worried look on his face. He still had his work clothes on, which meant that he came directly here ofter the day was over.

"Oh, Nevile. What are you doing here?" Aldar asked, putting some papers away.

"What did Rothm want?" Nevile asked almost before Aldar finished his sentence.

"Oh- he is proposing that we expand the maintenance section." Said Aldar, while finishing de-cluttering his desk.

"Yes I am sure he..." Nevile's expression changed drastically, " What! ... Why?"

Aldar shrugged,

"He didn't say, but personally I think it is a move to gain popularity. And, to me, it's working. You know how we need the space." Aldar said, while waving a hand to the area around his desk, witch was cluttered with all sorts of tools.

"I am just warning you, I just... have a bad... feeling. If I were you, I wouldn't trust him."

Aldar put a hand on his head, his claw tapping the top of his forehead,  
"Well, let me ask you something, Nevile; have you ever actually spoken to the guy?

"N-no but-"

"A-ha! There you go!" Aldar exclaimed, hands in an 'I told you so' position, "You are just saying what your feelings are."

"Aldar..." Nevile seemed to be pleading now.

"..." Aldar remained silent, giving his response in the form of a hard stare.

Nevile seemed to smile slightly,

"... I am just trying to help you..."

"I know you are, but this time I think your suspicions are unfounded," Aldar said, getting up and waling around his desk towards his friend, "Now, seeing you all worried like this is starting to get _me_worried now, too. Could you do me, and yourself, a favor and don't let your "fears" consume you? Your my friend, and I hate to see you worry about nothing." All while he said this Nevile seemed to be thinking hard, his usually active eyes now fixed on the ground beneath him.

"Well I guess you may be right... I'll be out of your way now." Nevile replied.

"Ok, bye." Aldar said, opening his desk drawer, beginning to get out some papers.

Nevile Headed for the door. As he open the door his tone changed, "The last time I had this feeling... someone got hurt. At first I didn't think much on it, but afterwards... I hope nothing happens here, but..." Nevile shook his head, deep in thought, "... Nevermind- later Weldar...".

And before Aldar could ask about anything, Nevile shut the door, leaving Aldar in a hushed silence.

* * *

Again, Sorry this took so long. But I had also worked on an upcoming chapter while I was writing this, so please bare with me.

Read and Review! (Don't forget to favorite.)


	4. Reminiscence

**Grunty ****Industries****: ****The ****Untold ****Story**

**_Chapter 4._**

_Oh, and in case you forgot, I don't own any of this. Rare-ware does._

* * *

Aldar headed to the train station. When he got there, he was surprised to find a familiar sight. A locomotive was currently in the station, a steady trail of steam billowing from it's smoke stack. It was a old, fine engine, it's boiler outlined with yellow trim. The train was pulling a boxcar that seemed to have a bunch of people in it. Even though his view was blocked by a large support beam, he knew that the word "Chuffy" was emblazoned on the train's boiler.

Aldar noticed a person in the boxcar get out and start to walk towards him. As he got closer Aldar recognized him as Buford Billson, one of the less annoying people Aldar got to know in the mine. But every one called him Billy Bob.

"Well well well," ... he said as he noticed Aldar, "If it isn't ol' Aldar! 'Ow ye do'en?"

"Oh! Billy bob! Long-time no-see; might I ask what you are doing here?

"Oh- We've been contracted by this here factory to dig out the basement. You should know about it; last I heard you work down there, don't ya?"

"Yea I do, I just didn't released that the project would need, like, miners..."

"Well, it is probably because the mine has fallen on hard times, and the pay offered here was good, so that was probably the reason."

"Hi Aldar," it was Nevile.

"Hi Nevile, this Is Billy bob, who works in the mine."

"Hello," said Neville.

"Um, excuse me," the group turned to look at a small bear, one of the train station workers, "sorry to interrupt, but I really need to find the conductor of that train, do you know where he is?"

"You won't find him," both Aldar and Billy Bob said.

"...um, may I ask why?" the young bear asked.

"Well..." both Aldar and BB exchanged glances.

"Umm.. Am I missing something here?" Nevile asked, confused.

"Well, 'tis a long story... You may want to sit down," BB said.

After they all, including the station worker, took a seat facing the train, BB began,

"Now, the conductor of that train was a human known as Old King Coal. He was one of the conductors that delivered supplies to the mine. He was always on time to work, and always gave 110%, as they say. But the way we most remember him by was how he took care of his train."

Aldar took over now,

"Now, Old King was given one of the three trains, identical by the way of the mine. After just one week with the train, you couldnt tell that Chuffy, as Old King called it, was identical to the other two. He even got the name Chuffy put on the train. He would spend all his lunch break polishing the outside of the train, cleaning the wheels and panting that gold trim you see on Chuffy."

"So, what happened to him?"

"Well..." Aldar fell silent.

"One day," BB continued, "his train was deep in the mine. One of those supply lines that normally are deserted." Aldar then added, "And those tunnels are very long, too."

"Now, Old King's train was the fastest in the mine; and Chuffy's boiler took a heavy toll. Especially the main water pipe _inside_ the boiler. And that day, well, that water pipe gave its last breath. "

"So, with Chuffy out of commission, and no one around, he did what anybody would do: try to fix it on his own. So he waited till the boiler was cool, and climbed in to fix it.

"Inside the boiler!" Both Nevile and the bear exclaimed.

"Yes..."

"And then what?..."

"We think, on his way out of the boiler... He foot caught on the lever, and... and..."

"The boiler door closed."

"This is the worst part... Those trains have a feature that automatically ignites the boiler as soon as the door is closed."

A silence filled the station, the only noise was the soft puff of Chuffy.

"Now, the train was found a little ways closer to the active part of the mine. Apparently it got enough... well, heat from the boiler to push the train toward the main mine. When we found Chuffy, we looked everywhere for Old King, but finally we found part of his boot caught in the door and..." Aldar let the sentence trail off.

"The entire mine was devastated. The mine owner let us have a week off. A memorial service was held. Chuffy was cleaned up, then moved to the train shed.

"But, here's the really weird part. When the mine reopened, we all went to about are usual jobs. But at, oh about 9:30 I think, the supply train was scheduled to arrive at the station. Now, all of a sudden, the train master comes running out of the station, blabbering his head off. Now at this point a bunch of people were surrounding him. I think one person even thought the station-master was having some sort of seizure. Finally we managed to get him calmed down enough to have him point back into the station. Now at this point we didn't know what caused the old coot to have a breakdown like that, we had thought it might have been dangerous. So we sent two of the stronger men out to investigate. They came back soon after, with very confused looks on their faces. It seemed to be a combination of confusion and fear. The told us it was ok in the station, moreover, they told us that we needed to see this. So we all went in, and you would never guess what we saw. "

"We saw Chuffy was pulling the supply car!"

"Well we checked inside the conductor's cabin. No one was there, in fact, from the looks of it, no one had been in there since the train was decommissioned. It was if it somehow knew that it was needed and chugged it's way there. Now, take it what you will, but almost everyone in the mine believes that our good friend King Coal died... But he didn't leave."

The room was almost silent, noises made by the train were now noticeably subdued.

It was Neville who broke the science, "I admit, I am a very non-believer in most paranormal stuff, but this.. Well..."

The bear spoke up , "I still thing your pulling my leg. I bet there _is_ someone in the train."

The worker strides up to the conductors cabin and took a look inside.

"Well, there's no one in there now... I am still skeptical..."

At that moment the whistle on the train let out a loud, almost mocking Toot.

The worker looked back inside the cabin...

"...what?.."

"Is that proof enough for ya?" Billy bob chuckled.

The worker was silent, still looking at Chuffy.

The train blew it's whistle twice again. The wheels began to spin out, the large pistons of the locomotive moving fluidly. Eventually the wheels gripped the tracks and the train lurched forward. The back car bumped against the front car slightly as the train slowly rolled out of the station. The group watched as the train disappeared into a dark tunnel. It would then make a big loop around, then exit the way it entered, through a tunnel that jutted out from the large factory's side, heading out into the dense forrest that almost completely surrounded the factory and on to it's next destination.

"Well, I have to go to a meeting." Aldar stood up, the rest of the group followed suit.

"Aye, an' I ave to catch up with the rest of the workers. We need to do some prospecting-err... I guess you would not call it that, huh... Well we need to take some measurements, is what I am trying to say."

"All right see you all later," Neville said.

* * *

Neville was taking the elevator up to the 4th floor when it stopped at the 2nd floor and let on Billy bob.

Neville decided it was now or never. He had to ask.

"Hey BB?"

Yea?

"I don't know if you can answer this but... Aldar always said that he could not stand the people in the mine. When I asked for more info he just brushed me off. Do you know what it is?"

"Of course. And its funny you should ask about that, as it alloys to what we were taking about in the morning."

"What, the old king coal incident?"

Billy bob nodded, "You see, it was Aldar's job to inspect the trains regularly. It just so happened that Aldar's inspection of Chuffy was only a day before the accident. Some miners thought that Aldar neglected some aspects of the inspection, and that was the reason Old King Coal died. Even after the official investigation found no wrongdoing on alder's part, people still kept thinking that. And it wasn't just idle anger. It got so bad that one day Aldar found himself in a fight. He quit next day."

"Oh," Neville said, "I can see why he wouldn't want to talk about it."

"Yes," Billy bob said, as the elevator reached the 3th floor. As he got out he added, "Oh, and you mind not letting Aldar know I'd told you about this? He is still not over it, you know.

"Oh I wont tell."

"Thanks."

And with that, Billy Bob exited the elevator, the doors closing swiftly behind him, and the elevator lurching as it ascended.

* * *

(A/N)

Happy New Year!

***Special Note***

The inspiration for Old King Coal and Chuffy came from a fanfic called "BK Engine" by Orange-Pistachio on Deviant Art. You should check it out.

Remember To Review And Favorite!


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